Nagoya

09.08.2008 - 10.08.2008 32 °C

Nagoya began with a struggle. Combine heat and heavy bags and a rubbish map and you get a mess! Thankfully people in Japan always seem happy to help lost foreigners and we were saved by lovely people who had lived in Brighton!

We were staying in a hostel with tatami rooms (bamboo mat flooring) and futons which was quite exciting but first we had the sights of Nagoya at our disposal. It seemed like a less hectic Tokyo, with wider streets, more parks and a lot less neon, which was nice. We went for a wander round, which has become our usual start in a new place now, and found fun t-shirts and a wonderful little cafe full of Japanese cartoons by a famous artist whose name I`ve forgotten.

Our plan to see the sights soon changed to seeing a sight as time wore on but we headed to the Orchid House to see some flowers, and flowers they have! It wasn`t a big place but there were all kinds of different orchids everywhere, and even a little veggie patch! The range of flowers was stunning, and they were in so many different backgrounds and arrangements the place felt far bigger than it was. There`s a great pond and little waterfall which was beautiful, but they also had a lot of hungry bugs!

When the bugs got full, we got hungry so we hunted down a tasty veggie Chinese restaurant for dinner, where we also found a great Vegan guide to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka which as since come in very useful!

Posted by FranknVix 28.08.2008 04:21 Archived in Japan